


Spare Parts

by crankyoldman, drakonlily



Series: Your Empire is Falling [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: AU, Ardyn is a terrible dad, Gen, What Have I Done, it's kind of backstory, sort of inspired by MT Prompto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-01 07:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20811008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crankyoldman/pseuds/crankyoldman, https://archiveofourown.org/users/drakonlily/pseuds/drakonlily
Summary: Drakonlily finally talked me into working on an AU we've been playing with for a while. No idea on when we'll write stuff for it, but here's my first contribution.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Drakonlily finally talked me into working on an AU we've been playing with for a while. No idea on when we'll write stuff for it, but here's my first contribution.

Prompto Besithia was one of only a handful of clones that had been chosen to be tested out as more than fuel for Magitek soldiers. He was 10 by the time that the cloning had ceased entirely, as it had been much easier to disappear Imperial citizens. Long wars and desperate measures called for a loosening of morality, after all.

His four “brothers” had been dispersed into other families in order to avoid the suspicion his father having almost identical looking sons would produce. Only Loqi, given to the Tummelt family, had risen to any sort of prominence by the time he was 13. 

Out of them, he had proven to be the quickest in a number of ways; he learned, moved, and reacted with a speed that caught the eye of the Chancellor, Ardyn Izunia, when he came to visit Verstael. At least that was what Prompto had always assumed; he’d only done soldier exercises out of boredom, as the only other humans he interacted with had been guards. Mimicking their morning exercises had been kind of a game since he was 8.

“What did you plan on doing with this one, Besithia?”

“Prompto? I had intended to keep him as a lab assistant, but advanced though he may be, he’s unfortunately a child. I haven’t the slightest clue what to do with one of those.”

Gralea had largely been a lonely place for the boy, where he sought out just about anything he could read. Verstael didn’t keep much on hand that would be particularly entertaining, but one of the lesser Imperial soldiers had been giving him various manga when he noticed him reading an engine manual. 

His favorites had been something Lucian, The Rose General, which was full of action and people gazing at each other--the latter part he hadn’t understood well. 

Ardyn turned his head to the side, noticing the manga interior that Prompto cleverly hid inside a book on molecular biology. “Do you mind if I borrow him, if you’re not using him?”

“He’s of no use to me until he’s at least 19, so have at it. Next time I try cloning I’ll speed up the process.”

\---

Chancellor Izunia’s quarters were always so busy with people, and Prompto had taken to chatting with whoever was around. He didn’t know why he managed to learn so much, but he welcomed it, preferring to keep reading in the evenings. Sadly, no one in this part of the empire had much taste in Lucian manga, but there were at least action-filled tales of heroics for the Empire; if they were a tad bit more dour than the Lucian kind.

After a few months of what Prompto had later realized was observation, Ardyn approached him with a folder of files.

“I can’t help but notice that you are rather personable for one of Verstael’s sons. Would you like to learn a way to use that, for the better of the empire?”

He looked down at the folder between them, which had something scribbled on it in a language that Prompto had never seen before. He learned enough to know that the “better of the empire” was life. Perhaps he could become well-known like Loqi, who sometimes appeared on the official news channel, wearing smart-looking uniforms and standing behind important people. Important was very good in the Empire. 

“I like to learn. It’s much better than being bored.”

“Good boy. Let’s catch you up on some history first.”

\---

The Chancellor gave him more than just things to read. They had animated discussions about politics and science, where Prompto learned to make a case based on facts, logic. Then he learned how to go beyond that and appeal to what Ardyn referred to as “sentiment”.

“People are largely emotional beings.”

Prompto made a face. “I’m not.”

“You too, my boy. You’re a vicious little thing when you want to be. Do you remember how it felt when ambassador’s daughter said you looked pretty and you told her she looked simple?”

“She was simple. Pretty is a shallow word, for useless things.”

Ardyn tossed Prompto’s very worn copy of the last volume of The Rose General he’d gotten his hands on.

“Useless like this?”

“I—“

“You are very good at hiding things, but I have to say I’m delighted to see such romantic drivel. Unlike the bores that also share your DNA, there’s a spark of something… artistic here.”

He looked over to the corner, feeling his cheeks growing hot.

“Oh don’t be embarrassed. It’s incredibly difficult to pull the right kind of theatricality out of non-imaginative sorts. And you’re old enough to learn what can be gained when you don’t tell someone who calls you pretty simple and instead use that to manipulate them.”

\---

Ardyn waited until he was almost sixteen to reveal what all the training had been for. 

“I do believe you are going to be the most excellent spy and assassin. Did you know the Lucian prince is your age? In that country it's almost the age of consent, and marriage."

"You want me to marry a prince? That's... super weird."

"Oh no, my boy. I want you to marry and break the heart of a prince. And don't think I know about your rotation of friends--"

"You told me I could--"

"You obviously have learned everything I wanted you to. I'm pleased. Now, we've only got a few months to prepare and turn you into exactly what a little royal brat would like."


	2. Chapter 2

Sixteen was an age where boys liked to think that they were men. Even if he had not been both once upon a time, Ardyn had tasted the memories of enough boys and men to know that labels were senseless. What all men and boys were, at the end of the day, was self-serving. Once he knew that fact, Ardyn stopped worrying about troublesome issues of "humanity." 

He was still a romantic at heart, regardless. Ardyn sometimes caught himself in reveling in his situation. Somnus' line was quickly losing a war. The magnificent jewel that was Insomnia was going to be run roughshod because his line was _complacient_. They sat as the Knights of the Round, proud to simply be a subject of Bahamute's. They hadn't moved as much as time spun about them. 

Now he was going to show them what it meant to dispair, to sacrifice for _nothing_. The boy with Somnus' face was going to be the last King of Lucis. And he would die alone, by Ardyn's hand. Ardyn was no longer anyone's subject. He was a god-eater, and he would have his fill. The start and the end bookcased together so beautifully. Even if Ardyn himself died at long last, Noctis would go with him. 

Before letting _go_ there had been a part of Ardyn that was shamed for what he had become during his 2,000 year-long imprisonment. When his body had been weak, and he was still learning what he truly was. If Somnus still lived, Ardyn may have even thanked him. After killing him and desecrating his corpse, of course. 

All men can change, after all. 

"Ardyn?" The boy's voice shook Ardyn from his daydreaming. 

"Yes, come in, my boy." Ardyn loved children, truly. They were sponges for whatever was given to them. For the past six years, Prompto had been fed cleverness upon manipulation. For that, he thrived. The boy walked into a room as silently as a coeurl and twice as deadly. Children made for the best assassins. "How was your trip to the capital?"

"I'm afraid the Altissian Ambassador and her party didn't make the trip back." His face performed sadness while his eyes danced at his own power. 

Ardyn made a soft sound to acknowledge Prompto. "How sad. Pity, the Lucians, couldn't have secured their route." 

"Why are we _waiting_, Ardyn?" Prompto closed the door silently behind him and locked it. "People are boring."

"Of course they are, you're a being with intellect," Ardyn responded. "I wouldn't imagine that anyone you've come across in this wasteland could keep up with you. The scenery doesn't foster the imagination." 

There was a haughtiness to Prompto, "mine's fostered fine." 

Ardyn smirked; he could feel the Starscourge tug at the corners of his mouth. It threatened to split his face like an ax wound if he wasn't careful. "That is because you're far more useful to me like this."

"We're going to crush the espers and take all the treasures they've been hoarding while the rest of us are starving." 

"You needed to be starving to understand hunger, my boy." Ardyn stood and walked to a utilitarian cabinet. He removed a glass and a bottle of whiskey before he tossed a water to Prompto. "Anything else to report?"

"General Glauca is a horrid speller and inept at encryption." Prompto lamented. "He could have killed the Esper king a million times by now, and he's … probably enjoying his station too much." 

"I assure you he is." Ardyn poured two fingers of his drink and replaced the bottle. "He's not ready to play the long game." 

"He'd be less boring if he was." Clever, clever Prompto. 

After a sip of his whiskey, Ardyn chuckled darkly. "Most people are boring. Finding interest in them a matter of opinion, I suppose. Open the package on the table." 

Prompto perked up and cocked his head from one side to the other. His sharp eyes narrowed up at Ardyn in an attempt to gauge what was within the brown paper parcel. Ardyn's face only gave away exactly what he intended it to, however. Curiosity won over, and he tore into the package. 

Within, Prompto found a royal uniform that matched the Emperor's. It had been folded neatly and sat on top of a set of death penalties. The guns glimmered one silver and one gold. Reverently, Prompto reached out to touch one. He cupped the item in his hands in the manner one would hold a newborn kitten. "And here I thought I was going to be bored forever." 

"There's one thing left." Ardyn flipped a small tablet up to Prompto. "The Rose General, complete up to chapter forty." 

"Really?!" Prompto put the gun back quickly before he snapped up the tablet. "All of it?! How'd you get it?"

"At the risk of great pain," Ardyn responded. He waved the boy out of his quarters. "Go now; tomorrow is going to be a busy day." 

Prompto hugged Ardyn, "of course. I won't let the Empire down. Thank you, sir!" Prompto's character was soft enough to ingratiate him to other people. He was a hand-reared viper who was trained to show loyalty to one person. 

The door had hardly closed behind the boy when the scourge split Ardyn's mouth into a black ear-to-ear smile.


End file.
